Conventional checks and vouchers, such as credit card vouchers, include locations in which amounts of money must be indicated both in numerical form and in words. Use of this format, which is intended to provide enhanced protection against mistakes, forgery, and alteration of the numerical instrument, involves a number of difficulties:
1. Writing out the amount of money in words is often difficult and time consuming for persons unfamiliar with the language of a given country, and this limits the convenience of such instruments to given countries or regions.
2. Comparison of the numerical and word forms of the amounts on a given numerical instrument requires relatively skilled and diligent employees at the controlling institution, such as a bank or credit card company. Such comparison is extremely time consuming and tiresome, resulting in the fact that not all instruments are in fact checked for agreement between the numerical and word forms of the amounts indicated thereon.
3. The word forms of the amounts are not currently machine readable. In most cases, the numerical form of the amounts is also not machine readable.